Rethinking Workplace Risk Management
Workplace injuries have steadily fallen in the United States over the last half-century. But a deeper look at data reveals a troubling trend. The rate of serious workplace injuries and fatalities aren’t declining as quickly as minor workplace injuries. While workers are missing less work due to injuries, workplace fatalities are actually increasing in some states. This proves that not every injury or accident is alike or equal. It also has many wondering if a rethinking of workplace risk management is necessary.
Fewer people are getting hurt. This suggests that better risk management and accident prevention has helped to a point. However, the measures that are curtailing minor workplace injuries clearly aren’t as effective for serious injuries and fatalities.
MAC Safety, Inc. – safety consulting and risk management pros in Pittsburgh, PA – want you and your employees to safely come home from work every day. Here are a few ways to take a new approach to risk management.
Establish Hierarchy of Controls
Risk and hazard control should start at the top of your company’s hierarchy and work its way down. Safety professionals are often seen as hindering workflow. They’re on-site acting as “safety cops.” Making sure everyone is following safety protocols or following through with all required safety training. The more time supervisors spend on monitoring or training employees, the less time they have to actually work on improving safety protocols.
Always Prepare for Human Error
Human behavior, more specifically human error, is a common cause of workplace accidents. One way of reducing risk is to identify what workers are accident prone or most likely to make errors. Assign safer tasks to them. Use someone less likely to make mistakes for certain tasks. Now, understand that everyone is capable of human error. Risk management is all about decreasing risk by analyzing and controlling your worksite. It’s easy to document one’s risks to themselves or their co-workers. Why not make use of it to create a safer work environment?
Create a Safety Culture
The effectiveness of your workplace safety program can’t be defined by the presence or absence of incidents. While minimizing workplace accidents is always the goal, other factors like luck come into play. A string of no accidents or incidents isn’t necessarily a sign that your safety protocols are working. It can also be a string of luck as well.
Creating a safety culture comes down to doing things every day to craft a safer work environment. Safety isn’t about the absence of incidents. It’s about establishing controls and defenses that everyone gets on board with.
Build a Foundation of People Working Together
This ties into cultivating a safety culture. The greatest feats can be achieved by people working together. The ideal safety management system is built on a foundation of people working together. Everyone coming together with a common goal. That goal is each and every one of them going home at the end of the workday exactly how they entered. Even better, a strong safety management system, powered by your workers coming together as a team, usually leads to increased productivity and profit as well.
Prevention Through Assessment
Take the first step to reducing hazards and controlling probable risk with a comprehensive safety risk assessment. Not only is this a key component of OSHA compliance but it also central to a successful risk management process.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MAC Safety Consultants, Inc. is a full-service safety management company committed to finding our clients a wide range of cost-effective safety solutions. If you’re looking for safety training and risk management in Pittsburgh, PA, call us today at 724-513-4491 or visit us online at http://macsafetyconsultants.com.